Drugs made from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression, a new study suggests.

Scientists believe that the chemical psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, can turn down parts of the brain that are overactive in severely depressive patients, the Guardian reported.

The drug appears to stop patients dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies.

However, a bid by British scientists to carry out trials of psilocybin on patients in order to assess its full medical potential has been blocked by red tape relating to Britains strict drugs laws.

Professor David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, said that because magic mushrooms are rated as a class-A drug, their active chemical ingredient cannot be manufactured unless a special licence is granted.

We havent started the study because finding companies that could manufacture the drug and who are prepared to go through the regulatory hoops to get the licence is proving very difficult, Nutt said.

The whole field is so bedevilled by primitive old-fashioned attitudes. Even if you have a good idea, you may never get it into the clinic, it seems, he added.

Research by Nutt has found that psilocybin switches off part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex.

It was known that this area is overactive in individuals suffering from depression.

In his tests on healthy individuals, it was found that psilocybin had a profound effect on making these volunteers feel happier weeks after they had taken the drug, Nutt said.

There was quite a bit of clinical research done on psilocybin, peyote, and LSD back in the 60s.

Timothy Leary started down that path, then just proceeded through most every pharmaceutical there ever was just trying to find a new kick and trip his balls off. His actions ended up discrediting the entire endeavor.

Agreed. His biography was interesting though. He lamented that in all his years in Psychiatry the basic statistics hadn't changed at all. One third of patients got better, one third got worse, and one third stayed the same. I think he just gave up on science and decided to have a good time.

I took them a few times over 40 years ago. The dried ones were quite pleasant. Then somebody got a bag of “fresh” shrooms. In about 20 minutes I knew they weren’t real. Speed rush!!! They were probably ordinary mushrooms, bought at the store, and doused with something like LSD? and definitely Speed. Horrible! That episode ended my “experimentations.” Couldn’t trust what anything was.

Yes, just because some natural chemical is preferred by dopers means it has no medical value, EVER.

Some people balk at medical pot products and say what's next, medical meth?

Well, prescription methamphetamine has been available for decades to ADD/ADHD patients. It can even be legally prescribed to children.

That's right, pure methamphetamine can be prescribed to kids for something we are not even sure is a disease. Brand name Desoxyn.

Synthetic heroin is prescribed to people all the time. Even for minor injuries. Some are stronger and more addictive than natural heroin.

So if super addictive/debilitating methamphetamine and heroin can be prescribed if someone says it helps them why not pot? Well, there's no money in plants people can grow at home but there's plenty of money in addictive expensive pills. Especially when most of those expensive pills are paid for by the taxpayer.

Want to see the real dopers sitting on welfare and popping pills on your dime? Work as a pharmacy delivery person for just one day. I say let the dopers grow their own instead of getting us to pay for their pills.

The WOD is simply another way to scam taxpayers and take freedoms away.

No one said they were. Researcher was looking for mood changes in normal individuals.

Quit trying to treat symptoms, and treat the underlying cause.

Well, neuropsychopharmacology is certainly meant to treat the underlying cause. I hope you aren't implying that all depression are situational in etiology. Would make it rather difficult to explain offspring raised separately from parents who manifest the same psychiatric symptoms, in addition to both possessing biochemical markers linked to the disorder.

when I got out of the Army in 72 the first thing I did was stop cutting my hair. Then I ran into an old girl friend from high school and we dated for a while. She was all hippy chick and I was just a long haired country boy. We decided to got to Lubbock TX for a Ted Nugent concert and she brought a bag of mushrooms with her, I’d smoked pot in Vietnam but I wasn’t ready for this. I ate one before we left and one on the way and another when we got there. I still remember that concert like it was yesterday, had a blast.

I do find it interesting that marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug that is “extremely addictive” and/or “dangerous” and “not safe to use even under the supervision of a doctor”, but it's regularly referred to as a “gateway drug” to more serious drugs like cocaine which can be prescribed as a Schedule 2 drug. In TX, as in most states, small quantities of marijuana in a persons possession is a misdemeanor. But there are numerous Schedule 2 drugs that possession of even less than a gram is a felony. So the more dangerous one is the gateway drug to the less dangerous drug which may be prescribed.

Also, as a defense attorney (former prosecutor), I now understand why the government sticks to its position. They aren't going to take away the ability of cops to smell marijuana during a traffic stop and get the camel's nose under the tent. The government markets and black markets would take a huge hit financially if marijuana prohibition was repealed.

Truthfully I have seen much worse come from the misuse of alcohol than just about anything. I've never heard of a college student overdosing on marijuana. I have seen many instances of lethal alcohol poisoning. Not to mention that alcoholics go through a withdraw from addition that can itself be fatal. None of those things can be said of marijuana.

I'm not pro drug, I really am just against paying hundreds of billions of dollars as a society never making a dent in the WOD while domestic law enforcement continues to militarize itself, and the cartels bank off of the logical consequences of prohibition. The solution to the “drug problem” has given us a police state problem in my opinion.

Just my thoughts FWIW.

37
posted on 04/07/2013 1:14:06 PM PDT
by Clump
( the tree of liberty is withering like a stricken fig tree)

If researcher was looking for mood changes in normal individuals, then magic mushrooms would do the trick. Smart researcher, not only gets to get his friends high on class one drugs supplied by the Government, but gets paid to do it.

“Party at Doc’s house Dude!”

40
posted on 04/07/2013 5:35:59 PM PDT
by American in Israel
(A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)

I wouldn’t count on every depressive personality to have the same underlying problems, some of which could be brought to the fore rather than alleviated. I also wouldn’t count on every batch of psilocybin to have the same effect on those who consume it. Psychoactives are not for people who have deep-seated fears and suppressed strong emotions. It will come out and it ain’t gonna be pretty. Maybe in a controlled environment with tightly controlled dosages and patients who have been screened for other underlying psychological problems it could be a good thing, but I’d still have my doubts.

As depression is a booming business and is massively expanding, I somehow doubt that the bulk of patients have inherited biochemical markers for depression.

However I do suspect the primary cause of depression is adrenal burnout. As a side note, Nutritional therapy with high enzyme foods with a high mineral content DOES rapidly replete the body and reduce depression symptoms far faster than any therapy that I know of. I know of a Naturopathic Doctor that is very excited because some of his patients are showing marked improvement in a few months eating some rather custom tailored sour Kraut recipes from a local home kitchen movement group.

While I know the theory and have felt the benefits myself, I am no where near ta Kraut maestro. I can share the basic premise with you if you wish.

43
posted on 04/07/2013 5:50:54 PM PDT
by American in Israel
(A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)

The drug appears to stop patients dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies.

Ummm...yeah no kidding Captain Obvious. That's why they cause us to hallucinate and get high. That's why they mess with our minds. Of course it's all artificial. Nothing is really being changed except for the fact that it's escapism. Might as well say that getting drunk causes people to stop dwelling on themselves and our own perceived inadequacies.

I think most anybody with the least bit of an adventurous nature who attended college from the late sixties right on through the eighties had a brush with them. Mine came in an old “cracker” shack in Central Florida while on Spring Break. One of our group was from down there, we went out to visit and party. Nothing out of the ordinary at first, music, beer, a few shots of Jack, then a thunderstorm came up, ended, then one of the sort of hippyish chicks who actually lived in the shack got a gleam in her eye, went and got a basket and said come on, let’s go before the sun’s been out too long.

The shack was out in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a huge pasture, it’s big business down there, cattle in Central Florida. Looked like we were on the edge of the Everglades or something to me, palm trees, forest more like jungle, standing water here and there.

But, we went out and picked these little mushrooms, a specific kind that she pointed out, most were springing up out of cow patties but some weren’t and those were the ones we picked. Got her little basket about half full, went back to the shack on the edge of the pasture and she went to work. Washed them, trimmed the stems, discarded some, cut some of the larger ones into smaller pieces. Then she made a big boiling pot of grape koolaid, put them in there and let it simmer with the lid on for an hour or two, then let it cool.

We drank the koolaid. It was interesting to say the least. Everything was funny for a while, everything. That faded then colors started getting intense, like they were alive, it was like stepping out of black and white into the Land Of Oz. It got more peculiar after that, very meaningful behavior from wildlife, felt telepathic. Some of our group didn’t take it very well, and started getting afraid, which was like stepping back into black and white.

I won’t go on about it but I can see why certain creative types have done it. I can also see why some people do very disturbing things while on it. I wouldn’t do it again and do not recommend it at all, not because of what I experienced but because of what I saw others experience. I guess I’m not all that threatened by objective reality as I know it coming undone. Some are. Hard to know where you fall beforehand.

Back in the day I avoided ‘’shrooms’’. I didn’t trust the whole mushroom genus. Fungus as I saw it, dirty things pulled from the ground. I always went for the synthetic chemical stuff, that being LSD. Ah, the ‘’good old days’’, eh? My! Suddenly there’s a caterpillar wanting to talk with me....

‘’...and if you go chasing rabbits/and you know you're going to fall/tell them a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call/ call Alice/when she's ten-feet tall...’. Having a bad trip? Pop a couple of Benedryl, shows over real soon.

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